Günseli Başar

Günseli Başar — Biography

Günseli Başar was a Turkish beauty queen, model and columnist, born on 22 January 1932 in Diyarbakır into a military officer's family of predominantly Balkan Turkish background. While studying fashion at the Academy of Fine Arts, she won the Miss Turkey title in a 1951 contest organized by the newspaper Cumhuriyet, and the following year became the first Turk to be crowned Miss Europe after representing her country at the pageant held in Naples, Italy.

In 1955 she modeled for the female figure of the Atatürk and Turkish Youth Monument erected in the courtyard of Istanbul University, later describing the experience as an honor to represent Turkish youth beside Atatürk. She was married first to businessman Kutsi Beğdeş and later to former İzmir mayor Faruk Tunca, with whom she had a daughter and, in later years, two grandchildren.

Başar spent most of her later life in Bodrum. After a two-year struggle with Alzheimer's disease, she moved to Istanbul to stay with her daughter and receive treatment, and died there on 19 April 2013 at the age of 81.